Yes, it is, but you should probably use signed char or unsigned char instead. Unlikeshort, int, etc., signed char is a distinct type from char, so you probably don't want to do arithmetic with it (you don't know if it's signed in general).
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MehrdadAug 18 '12 at 11:46

2

If you're a perfectly moral being, you should only consider signed char and unsigned char as arithmetic types, and reserve char purely as a system-interfacing I/O type.
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Kerrek SBAug 18 '12 at 11:55

@Mehrdad Thank you. I will never use char for arithmetic operations! ;). In fact I thought char was italic_not_italic an arithmetic type...
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user1434698Aug 18 '12 at 12:14

Yes, it's just as a normal integer as any other (int, long, short). That's also a common practice in C(++) to use it for arithmetic, e. g. for converting a digit to its corresponding printable character, you can write